Let’s say someone invited you to join a gathering of people who call themselves Christians. That does not necessarily mean that you attend a church, a home church, a conference or a similar thing. Just imagine that you are going to meet people you have never met before and you want to find out whether they are honest and upright Christians – or not. The most common mistake we tend to make in such cases is the conviction that everyone who is friendly must be indwelt by God’s Spirit. Dear brothers and sisters, nothing could be further from the truth, since Satan usually “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14 ESV). Satan tends to be the nice guy who feeds the bunny a carrot first, but later he whips the stick out of his pocket. As wonderful as it is to meet friendly Christians who really radiate the light and love of God, as painful were my own experiences in the past when I had to deal with those other, in the long run, harmful encounters. Today I rather ask God for His wisdom to show me the truth so that I can more easily perceive who is ‘the real thing’ and who is not (cf. Js 1:5). Love bombing to win me does not work anymore as long as I sense the Lord’s gentle voice inside me saying, “Take care, Susanne!” and I simultaneously feel repelled by the presence of false spirits in those persons I am confronted with.

What might be helpful if we are insecure about how to judge other Christians as to the spiritual voices that speak out of them, it is both listening to what they really say and about who they really talk. If they are interested in us, they will not spring something on us in order to change our views because they know it all better. Instead, if they are honest and upright, they will listen to our concerns with a loving and understanding heart, even though we might tell them some “not-so-nice” details about ourselves. They will reveal the unconditional love of Christ and thus they will rather listen wholeheartedly than talk about themselves since their Christlike selflessness and self-forgetfulness compels them to do so. Lately I found out, that one of the most effective weapons that is often underestimated is to pray silently while listening. We do not know whether someone who remains silent prays and listens to God, has nothing to say, or is even bored stiff by what he hears unless their facial expression gives us some hints. Of course, we should not always only listen. When God nudges us, we should open our mouths and share what He gave us for others. Indeed, there are so many Scriptures that point out the importance of wisdom in speech, yet I decided to only paste the following.

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near. (Prv 10:11-14 ESV)

When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense. (Prv 10:19-21 ESV)

With these verses in mind, we could also ask ourselves when confronted with others whether and how talking with them influences our feelings. Do we feel comfortable to be with them? Do we dare to open up our hearts and tell them more than others because we feel they can be trusted? Looking particularly at Proverbs, Chapter 10, Verse 11, I just saw that we need to feel ALIVE when a righteous person talks with us. And if we made a mistake, he or she would certainly cover any offense due to their God-given love. In contrast, if talking with someone makes us feel insecure, anxious, and we even feel the impulse “to run”, we should not underestimate such feelings since they can be from God, too. Not that we need to really run away in such moments (speaking physically). However, we should guard our hearts against demonic influences of “Christians” who do not have His Spirit – maybe, they do not even know it – and who try to submit our spirits to theirs through their natural self-will power. Take care, brothers and sisters! Or in other words,

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. […] They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 Jn 4:1; 5-6 ESV)

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52 thoughts on “Discerning the Spirits”

Great blog, Susanne. Except by specific spiritual discernment, it is not possible to know the genuineness of a person’s claim to be a Christian on the first encounter. Scripture says, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” [Matthew 7:16 NIV] The fruit is a pattern of demonstrations of humility, forgiveness, mercifulness, longsuffering, and a servant’s spirit as well as a heartfelt interest in the salvation of others. What do you think?

I have noticed that the soulish person fills what they write and their speech with personal pronouns; I, me, my, etc. They also will derail the conversation to their own agenda eventually instead of being truly caring about Christ and His will in your life. Great post with rich insight, dear Susanne! 🐻

What you wrote about personal pronouns overshadowing the “you” and “we” part is consistent with my own observations, as it has been my observation that the soulish/selfish persons always try to impose their own agenda on others because they are not interested in what others have to say. That is a clear sign that they do NOT hear God’s Spirit who gives everyone different spiritual gifts just as HE wills (cf. 1 Cor 12) so that the Body of Christ will build itself up – in love (Eph 4:16).

Yes, you described it very well! ⭐ Meeting a “fruitless tree”, so to speak, is certainly anything but a thrilling experience, but if God gives us spiritual discernment, we are on the safe side and can deal with such people more easily.

The ‘by their fruits you shall know them’ is regarding false teachers in the context.

I’ve been challenged regarding judging the eternal destiny of professing believers but agree, that often we do see some as ‘the real deal’ based on what they speak about.

I’ve found recently that when I speak to believers caught up in ‘church’, if they are willing to listen and hear me out it is a positive sign. If they’re quick to defend the teachers they’ve heaped up… Only the Lord can help them.

Suzanne, thank you for the blog. Discerning the Spirit is so important. I am a novice at that. God has protected me with his grace so many times. The brother wrote that fruit is a help for discerning the Spirit – that also is a word that I would do well to be practicing.

I am happy to hear that you realized that God had protected you many times already. Yes, Lloyd’s contribution about fruit checking was very helpful.

In my case, it seemed to me at first sight that God had not protected me because I used to submit to false teachers not only once in the past. However, as God helped me come to terms with my past mistakes springing from my “old inclination” to jump out of the frying pan into the fire, I suddenly saw that His still small voice had always been there inside me, trying to warn me in such a subtle and gentle way that it could easily be ignored due to the louder voices of man outside of me. Dear sister, it has been a long process of learning and unlearning. And today I know that I always need HIM and his immediate help in order to not be led astray once again since I cannot trust in my own, often confused thoughts of which I know that Satan fed them, however, I cannot get rid of them without the Holy Spirit’s wind blowing through my mind until there is only His love, light, and peace.

Susanne, as you and I also know, a big part of the deception in these last days has come in with leaders who use not only Bible knowledge, but “signs and wonders” to deceive the gullible. Jesus said that an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. Paul wrote in 2 Thes. ch. 2 that the man of sin will come with all power an signs an lying wonders, seeking whom he may deceive. I believe that this is why God is stripping so many of us of all that our natural man clings to, even our love of knowledge, wisdom and mysteries, so that only faith, hope and love remains, for only as we walk by faith in His love and not by sight will we be free of all this intense deception that is going on today.
Love you all! ❤

Indeed, if there is one thing about the horrible Dark Night of the Spirit of which I now realize that there must have been “something” that had an positive effect on me, then it is the fact that I am today no longer interested in anything outside of God’s love, be that visions, dreams, revelations, miracles, wonders, revivals, evangelism, I am sure you get the picture. There is in fact nothing left of what I once thought was somehow important. Thank God for His crucifying work in me! Amen.

Yes, dear Susanne! You really blessed me when I read this! That Dark Night of the Spirit truly is a gift for us because He loves us so much that He does not want to lose us to all these other things that the enemy can counterfeit and entice our flesh with. Being stripped down to the three that will remain throughout eternity, faith, hope and love in and for the Father and the Son and for all His saints… THIS is ALL that we need. Out of these alone will come any “good works” that God desires to do through us. All else is so much wood, hay and stubble that will be consume in His purifying fires.
In His great love, your brother,
Michael

This is a much needed lesson, both for Christians and non-Christians. As Christians, we are instructed by Scripture to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matt. 10:16). Many Christians, though well-intentioned, are extremely naive. They accept all at face value, exposing themselves to great harm.

Non-Christians have even more difficulty distinguishing between genuine Christians and those claiming to be Christian. It breaks my heart when readers speak of having their faith shaken (or destroyed entirely) by an abusive individual or cult group misappropriating the label “Christian”.

Yes, Anna, God let me go through much abuse at the hands of cult leaders and even “main line” church leadership as well. One good thing that came our of it, He used them to show me what He wants me to NEVER do with His saints and give me great compassion for the victims of spiritual abuse.

Next up on God’s agenda is for me to gain compassion for those deluded leaders who abuse and truly praying for them as well. As Jesus put it so well, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

For sure! When we stop learning in our hearts, we have quit listening to His voice for the Word who was there in the beginning of creation is STILL speaking to us to the very end if we have ears to hear.

Susanne, thank you for your encouragement! I seem to get my inspiration always when I am interacting with the people of God…. Wait, isn’t that what Paul taught as to how the Spirit moves among us? Duh! Man, that “one man band” mindset is hard to shake, isn’t it? We are “members one of another” and the “joint supplies.”

Maybe the Spirit will take what you are perking on and put it together with what He has given me? Only the Wind knows. 🐻

What you said about the fatal tendency to believe things at face value was very true for me too because I suppressed my feelings as effectively as possible when it seemed I lost appreciation and love if not doing so. If we had an abusive history in our past life, there is something inside us that was broken into pieces and self-worth is a word of foreign origin for the one who only seemed to be appreciated when giving in to abusive threats.

What I needed to receive here was not only God’s help to show me how to discern the spirits, but also the authority to say ‘No!” to evil spirits approaching me through others (esp. Christians, but not only) without feeling somehow “guilty” afterwards.

Susanne, Oh what lovely freedom we have when Jesus sets us free in Body, soul and spirit. This includes the rebuilding of our proper boundaries against the wiles of our adversary that we should have as children of God. Like Paul said so well regarding the dangers of being taken captive and away from our blood bought freedom IN Christ,

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
(1 Corinthians 7:23 NIV)

But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage– to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who were reputed to be something (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)–those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to me; (Galatians 2:4-6 RSVA)

Oh Michael, you do not know how much your comment has helped me today!!! And those three Scriptures fit perfectly too. In fact, ALL has been a confirmation for me directly from God. Thank YOU, Daddy, and thank you, Michael!!!!! ❤ ❤ 🐱

In my experience, if I am with a false Christian, their words will not bear witness with my spirit or they will just give me the creeps. After I have left their presence, I will be grieved in my spirit: one time it was for three days, the other time I was grieved in my spirit for three weeks.

Sorry for my late response, Tim. I was not in Fürth until this afternoon because I had been at the 30 years class reunion in my hometown yesterday.
I found your description of how you perceive false spirits in other people not only helpful but even perfectly expressed. You wrote,

Their words will not bear witness with my spirit or they will just give me the creeps. After I have left their presence, I will be grieved in my spirit.

That was so very good and worthy to be quoted! ⭐ Indeed, that has been exactly my experience too, even several times lately and not only regarding Christians. It is anything but fun to feel His Spirit being grieved in us… 😦

Page 119: Whenever we assume a position of authority without God’s appointment we are exalting ourselves. This includes those who are called but have yet to be appointed. Persons who commission themselves will ultimately serve themselves since the grace of God is not on them for that position. They will develop self-serving methods and agendas.

That hit home with me since that is something God has been teaching me during the last few days. Basically, we have no Christian authority whatsoever unless it has been given to us by Christ’s Spirit. It has been a painful period during which God’s light exposed all my many weaknesses through allowing Satan to attack me continuously (day and night). However, Satan is only a weapon in God’s hand. As soon as what God wanted to expose can be seen in our hearts and minds by us too, His Spirit pours His power and authority over demons into us so that there is nothing to fear any longer. It is a painful process, but we have a powerful God for whom the impossible is possible.

Very good topic Sue–In my own experience of 40 years here is what I have learned–#1 is to listen to Fathers voice in His warning me and #2 is my experience of the woman I was married to for 28.5 years–after she divorced me I was driving down the road one day and Father asked me–Ken in your time with Patty of 28.5 years how many times did she mention My sons name? I said–how do you expect me to remember that? He said ok take a few days and think it over–so I did and I could not remember her mentioning the name of Jesus Christ even once in all those 28.5 years–then Father told me to pay attention to how people speak about their Christianity and see if His sons name gets mentioned.So that’s what I look for when people talk about their Christianity.I still talk to my ex and she still does not mention Christ at all–so that makes me wonder.

Ken, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If our hearts belongs to Jesus, He is the one we will be constantly speaking about. I was thinking about all the years I went to Sunday church and how few times after the service I ever heard a church member talking about Jesus, yet they had just spent over an hour singing hymns to Him and listening to a sermon about Him. I usually heard about sports, hunting or work from the men I talked with and I made them feel uncomfortable when I wanted to talk about the Lord.

I was thinking for quite some time about how to reply to you regarding your testimony on here and I already read your second response below too. I just want to clarify that it was not my intention to accuse anyone who says he or she is a Christian of being a false brother or sister if they have not received His Spirit yet. We know that everything happens by grace as you mentioned in your other comment beneath this one (re “second birth”). My concern was more to point to those who claim to be IN Christ, yet only use His name in order to have their agenda and to finally lord over us. In fact, sometimes it is VERY difficult to discern these Christians from others. Without feeling His Spirit inside us as Tim Shey in his response above so aptly expressed, we can easily run into the danger of having fellowship with those who are indwelt by evil spirits whose only intention is to destroy our faith in Christ completely.

Yea I hear you Mike–One thing I forgot to mention in my story about my wife of 28.5 years is that I am not sure that I was mentioning Christs name either for those 28.5 years–however at the time of the divorce I experienced what Brening Manning used to call THE SECOND BIRTH–that’s where you come to a realization of the indwelling Lords life inside of you and your death to self stuff–so I guess you can be saved but just not awakened or something of that nature–regardless it is difficult to tell the real deal from the false–as a matter of fact–if it was not for the Lord telling me that I belong to Him I would seriously doubt my own salvation!

Well, Ken, I know that I have had my ups and downs and at times if anyone we to look at my outside and my actions, they would think I was not in Christ. One thing that did happen to me about two years ago was that He sovereignty moved on me and returned me to my First Love. Up until then the following words about the church at Ephesus describe where I had been at, “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” BUT I had lost my first love relationship with Jesus. We can understand all mysteries and have all knowledge and wisdom, but without love it profits us nothing in the eyes of our eternal Lover who longs for us. But if we are lacking any good gift we can return to the Father and ask for it and He will not hold it back from us. Thank God for that.

Here is what I told a guy onetime when we where debating over the issue of the Trinitarian nature of God–I said to him as I grabbed my behind–this is what I am concerned about–and if your butt does not make it into Gods kingdom that’s your problem–I want you to make it but if you don’t and I do I will be happy and I will be sad for you—after that I never saw him again and I hope to see him up yonder–but if not–oh well to each their own.As Paul said–examine YOURSELF–do you have Christ living inside of you–I hope you do not fail the test–I do not fail the test.

Ken, I think that way too much emphasis is put on “right doctrine” in this fallen state of the church. I think what makes the difference is what God sees when He looks into our hearts, not into our heads. If He sees a bride in there that is in love with His Son, THAT is what will makes the difference!
Your brother, Michael

Yes, I have seen that inclination in my old self too, that is, to either reject the Spirit’s gentle nudgings because I rather wanted to be right or exactly the opposite happened as you so rightly said above. Phew! What would I do without His God-given patience since I have NONE. 🙂

By the way, “practicing His presence” reminds me somehow of Brother Lawrence who wrote “The Practice of the Presence of God”…

Yes, Susanne and “Pray-Through-History”, these wild swings are truly an indication of the flesh that is still dying in us and trying to maintain control, but Daddy is bringing us into His rest and oh, what peace and joy is ours in the Holy Spirit!

Ha! Unknowingly you just gave me a confirmation from God, Michael, as you said,

“These wild swings are truly an indication of the flesh that is still dying in us and trying to maintain control, but Daddy is bringing us into His rest and oh, what peace and joy is ours in the Holy Spirit!”

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“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

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